Ironies and Lullabies
by solangelo
Summary: If he were a map, it'd be hard to plot him. Solangelo.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own PJO and HoO.

**IRONIES AND LULLABIES**

**X X X**

_If he were a map, it'd be hard to plot him._

**X X X**

The ironic thing is: the doctor is sick.

It has been almost a week after the terror of Gaea's awakening—the potty sludge princess is now back to her slumber, thanks to both the Greek and Roman forces—and Will Solace has been stuck in the infirmary for days healing the injured and the wounded.

His health at the moment is in a bad state due to the excessive time he spent looking after his comrades.

And also, no one even cared to go check in on him if he's fine. Especially Nico di Angelo. When Will acquired of him as to why he doesn't come to the infirmary, the son of Hades looked at him as if the answer wasn't obvious.

Will only rolled his eyes at Nico and called him dense.

Right now, Will is lying on one of the beds in the infirmary with his eyes closed.

Nico had sneaked in a while earlier and sat on the chair beside Will's bed. Until now, he's wondering why he sneaked in if he could just simply walk casually like any other demigod would if they were to see if how the others are. But Nico still finds it very ironic to be in this place.

People resting to regain their health with someone reeking of death in the same room as they are is what makes this whole situation quite funny and weird and wrong. This is according to Nico, anyway.

He doesn't even know what to do—should he, like, tap dance or murmur soothing words or sing or just stare at the son of Apollo until he wakes up? The last part seems to be in some freaky teenage fiction about vampires Nico finds creepy and vaguely stalker-ish.

Just for the sake of killing time and having some sense of normalcy, Nico starts singing softly in Italian; just quiet enough that only he could hear, hopefully.

He starts to relax a little, the song calming his nerves. The battle is over so there isn't really any reason for him to be tensed. But he's still adjusting, trying to figure out how to loosen up a bit because he's been too guarded for so long he doesn't even know what it's like to be free anymore.

It might take some time but he's got some friends now and he will try his best not to push people away from now on. The idiot lying here on the bed had told him that people at Camp Half-Blood didn't want him to go away; he was the one keeping his distance from them. And he's right.

Nico starts to twist the skull ring on his finger when Will flutters his eyes open and fixes his blue orbs on his onyx ones.

"What was the song about?" he asks Nico. Apparently, he wasn't singing softly enough.

He shrugs and answers, "Bianca used to sing it to me before. It's about a little soldier."

Will rolls his eyes. "It's funny that you sang that in front of me."

"Why?"

His face flashes an expression of disgust. "Because I'm just a healer, Death Boy. I'm no soldier. And I'm useless."

Nico could protest right now that he doesn't like being called that but seeing Will lost in a pool of self-hate right now as he averts his eyes and stares up the ceiling tells Nico that this is the wrong time to call that out.

"You're not useless. I don't think half the demigods here could recover in no time if it wasn't for your healing abilities," Nico puts in.

Will smirks at the ceiling.

"I find you pretty weird sometimes, di Angelo," he admits. "You've got lots of hate in you yet you wouldn't allow anyone else to have a little ounce of self-loathing."

Nico finds this quite offensive. "Yeah, sure, Will, like how you're a healer but you're in no condition to heal anyone at the moment."

Will looks him dead in the eye. "I'm sick because I was busy helping others get better," he says, a hint of anger in his voice.

"And their health right now is?" Nico asks.

"Stable," Will answers without missing a beat, "They just need some time to rest then they're okay to go."

Nico raises an eyebrow and tilts his head. "And you, Solace, have the nerve to call yourself useless."

"Whatever."

Silence falls upon them and none of them knows what to say. Boy, does Nico know how to shut Will up.

He continues to hum the song as he twists his skull ring.

He looks around the room and see the others sleeping and to the son of Hades, it seems like Will has done a great job healing them.

Well, we all need other people to appreciate what we could do; we need them to call out the schist we say about our hopelessness with ourselves.

Will's bed is near a window so right now, the sun illuminates him, making his blond hair have a golden tint as if it's shining. It's typical for a child of Apollo to have splashes of freckles on their skin but Nico thinks he didn't even comprehend about how these things could actually make someone look better until now.

Though facing the ceiling, Will could see the son of Hades at the corner of his vision. All tousled dark hair and pale skin. Didn't this guy, like, had olive skin before? The difference of his complexion when he first came to camp years ago compared to now is really obvious.

During the morning when the Romans were supposed to attack Half-Blood Hill, Hedge arrived just in time for Mellie to give birth to Chuck. Will couldn't blame the satyr for the kid's name—he was a pretty big Chuck Norris fan.

Hedge had filled him in about what happened to them in the course of their mission bringing the Athena Parthenos with them. He also said that Nico had literally been to the pits of hell and back _alone _but still had the courage to carry out another dangerous quest that involved life and death all over again.

_That_, Will thinks, _is bravery. _

The guy looks like he's got some emotional barriers all around him but from time to time, if you were really observing, you could see it go down just a little.

"What doesn't go along," Will says, "is sadness and you."

"Seriously, Solace, you're not going to tell me about this."

How could he say that? Nico has been inseparable with this thing since he lost Bianca and had all the other things happen to him after his sister's death.

"Yeah, you might seem to think it's a part of you but as I was supposed to tell you if that idiot Octavian didn't interrupt me was that if you could just get your head out of that brooding dark cloud for a while, you might actually realize sadness isn't all there is that's going to be your comfort zone. It isn't going to be if you won't let it, Death Boy, because you've got some people around you willing to help."

Nico is dumbstruck. Until now, he still finds it hard to believe that there are demigods wanting to be his friend but maybe he's been too busy hating himself and the world to notice that. Also, Will casually threw in Octavian's name without any feeling of remorse whatsoever.

He really needs to revise his impression of this guy.

_A lanky cat, _Nico thinks. _This right here is a lion._

"Will and useless doesn't go along as well," Nico says firmly.

"You're obviously not going to let me off the hook about this one," Will notes.

"Obviously," Nico answers. "Like what I had told you a while ago, these demigods can't recover without your aid. You may not be much of a fighter, Solace, but you sure are somebody who makes it possible for the injured soldiers to stand up and fight again."

Will's eyes soften. There had been lots thanking him for healing them but he didn't really appreciate it. Maybe he just needed the right set of words to make him believe. Yeah, he might also need to reconstruct his opinion about the son of Hades.

He's a guy content in the shadows but now Will could see his struggle to not melt with it. Also, he's not so okay with physical contact and Will could understand that, with all his isolation for years; that's why he pulled his hand away when Will grabbed it.

Meh. Or maybe Nico just found it unsanitary. _Here. I just delivered a baby satyr using these hands. NOW HOLD THEM._

But whatever anyone might think of Nico di Angelo, he's the kind of person who couldn't bear to see others feel what he feels.

And because Nico isn't exactly what you could call affectionate, Will says, "Convincing words there, di Angelo." He smiles and faces the ceiling before closing his eyes. "Pretty nice but you suck."

Nico knows Will is joking. He probably has an idea how Nico isn't the type that likes to be smothered with compliments. Well, if the blond dude is joking, Nico will muster one too.

"I suck," he repeats. "Does this happen to be a pun?"

Will's eyes fly open and looks at Nico if he is in some way, kidding. The guy is dressed in black from top to bottom with shadows under his eyes and fingers twisting his ring quickly.

Yeah, the goth could have a sense of humor. Will locks eyes with Nico and they laugh together.

"Hey, di Angelo, sing me that Italian song again," he says.

"Doctor's orders?" Nico asks.

"What?" Will asks back, a bit confused.

"That's supposed to be your punch line, Solace."

"Oh yeah. Let me just. . . okay. Nico, sing me that Italian song again. Doctor's orders."

Nico does until Will is lulled back to sleep.

**X X X**

**AN:** Hi! I'm Jerna (one of the owners of this account) and this is my first Solangelo fanfic. Well, not technically since the very first one I made was during our finals exam in math when I didn't know how to solve the equations anymore. I hope you enjoyed this. And to those wondering, the Italian song Nico was singing is the chorus part of Paola Bennet's _Soldatino_. It's a wonderful song. Do check it out. So, what do you think about this fic? All your opinions are appreciated ^^


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